Wollanka jumps over Coelho to win A1

Martin Wollanka won the opening A-Main of 4WD at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia by jumping over his Xray team-mate & Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho.  With a mistake on the opening lap putting out reigning champion Lee Martin, the Yokomo driver starting second between the two Xrays, up front it was a clear track for Coelho, Wollanka and Martin Bayer to battle for the win.  A mistake by Bayer on lap 3 would end his challenge with Wollanka all over Coelho’s rear end.  As the race reached half way distance Wollanka would throw caution to the wind and go long over the centre double section over jumping the World Champion with a huge cheer coming from onlookers. Having to brake to avoid the Austrian landing on top of him, Coelho would try to take the lead back over the next few laps but the pair would make contact with Coelho coming off worse with Wollanka, as he did at the season opener at the Nurburgring, holding on for the A1 win. Getting a talking to afterwards from Xray boss Juraj Hudy, Wollanka describing his pass as ‘dangerous’ adding he wouldn’t take such a risk again in A2.  Coelho called the pass ‘crazy’ saying if he hadn’t braked the move would most likely have eliminated both cars.  Behind them Joern Neumann would benefit from Martin and Bayer’s errors to finish a distant 3rd, almost 5-seconds back with last place qualifier David Ronnefalk getting his HB up to 4th.

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Coelho gives Xray home TQ at EOS Slovakia

Bruno Coelho has claimed Xray a home TQ at Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia, a faster time in the fourth & final round of 4WD qualifying giving the World Champion the tie breaker over reigning EOS Champion Lee Martin.  With Martin’s Yokomo having topped Q1 and 3, the pressure was on Q2 pace setter Coelho to deliver the fastest qualifying time of the event and he did albeit just by 3/10ths of a second better than Martin’s Q3 time.  The final qualifier would be ‘not (the) most successful qualifier’ for Martin as an error at the corner table top would cause his bodyshell to get stuck in the spur gear requiring him to stop to have it fixed.  A second P2 run from Martin Wollanka would secure the Xray driver 3rd on the grid ahead of the event’s winner for the last two season’s Martin Bayer with multiple EOS champion Joern Nuemann completing the front half of the 10 car A-Main grid.

Coelho said ‘finally I put in a run without mistakes’, him challenging for the TQ the first and third qualifiers only to throw it away with mistakes.  Top Qualifier of 2WD on his EOS debut at the season opener at the Nurburgring, the Portuguese ace added his Q4 performance ‘was perfect’ but added there is ‘no time to relax’.  Expecting a hard race with Martin he said ‘Wollanka is also super strong so I cant just drive safe in the final, I will have to push’.  Running new tyres in Q3 he said his XB4 was ‘aggressive’ but having run the tyres again in Q4 he said the car should be easier to drive in the final.

Asked about maintaining his 100% EOS Season #5 winning streak from second on the grid, Martin said ‘it is going to be hard being in the Xray Quarter Pounder’. Winner of the season opener from pole position he said ‘Bruno is World Champion and this is his playground’ so it going to be a tough to beat him.  Commenting on his Q3 performance he said after Coelho’s mistake he let up a little to keep it safe when in hindsight he should have kept pushing but added ‘You cant reflect on the past in racing’.  Happy he has the car to challenge Coelho for the win he said getting three car in the final at Xray’s home track was proof of the strength of the YZ4.  Joining Martin in the final are team-mates Marc Rheinard who starts 6th and Japanese teenager Kaito Kodera who lines up 8th.

‘Third (on the grid) is good but it’s not good enough’, that was Wollanka’s view of his qualifying performance.  P2 in Q3 & 4, the Austrian said Coelho and Martin are two of the best drivers in the World and while he wants to win he feels that is only going to be possible if something happens between them. Encouraged by the fact he was able to close the gap to Coelho over the last 3-minutes of the final qualifier he said for the final he would ‘see what happens’.

A driver who won this event last year from 3rd on the grid beating Top Qualifier Naoto Matsukura, Bayer said ‘the track as we’ve seen from the 2WD final is very challenging and everything can happen’.  The Czech ace tried different front caster blocks for the final qualifier but ‘didn’t like it’ and will revert back to the standard block for A1.  Joining Bayer in the final will be his younger brother Ales who will start 7th.

Repeating his qualifying result of the Season #4 finale the Hudy Arena, Neumann was happy with fifth on the grid.  The Serpent driver said after lowering his ride height for Q3 the car was ‘decent’.  Lowering it further for the final qualifier he would also fit new tyres but this caused the SRX4 to push but with the rear tyres now broken in he said they should be good for the final.  The 3-time EOS 4WD Champion said in ‘4WD there are many crashes and hopefully I can come out the right side of them’.

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Chassis Focus – Lee Martin

Chassis: Yokomo YZ-4
Motor: Muchmore Fleta 5.0 T
ESC: Muchmore
Batteries: Protek RC 4250mah
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Xpert
Remarks – Top Yokomo factory driver Lee Martin is running the latest version of the Japanese company’s 4WD buggy that sports some option parts such as Yatabe shock springs, a titanium screw set and the same yet-to-be-named LMR prototype wing the British ace used to win the 2WD encounter. With the car’s layout offering different battery position possibilities, this time the LiPo is mounted longitudinally on the right side.

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Q3 Update – Martin fastest

In the third round of 4WD Qualifying at EOS Round 2 it was reigning champion Lee Martin who topped the times, the Yokomo driver knocking 2-seconds off the pace of the opening two qualifiers at the Hudy Arena.  Behind him, 1.6-seconds adrift, was Martin Wollanka, the Xray driver benefiting from a mistake by his team-mate & Q2 pace setter Bruno Coelho.  Pushing Martin for the first minute and a half, Coelho would crash at the table top losing 4-seconds as his XB4 was marshalled.  The World Champion would pull back over half of the lost time setting a new fastest lap of 23.143 on his way to third for the round. 3.4-seconds further back last season’s race winner Martin Bayer would equal his Q2 result with another P4 followed by Serpent’s Joern Neumann and young Japanese Yokomo protege Kaito Kodera who completed the Top 6.

The only girl among the 91 strong international 4WD field, rising 10-year-old talent Malin Karlsen put in great Q3 performance.  The Norwegian factory Xray driver, who is running in the second fastest heat after being 17th fastest in controlled practice, would post the 10th fastest time behind European Champion Michal Orlowski and touring car ace Marc Rheinard.

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Coehlo takes Q2 at EOS

World Champion Bruno Coelho has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  Racing at the home of his Xray team, the Portuguese driver headed a 1-2 for the XB4 at the Hudy Arena with Martin Wollanka 2/10ths off his pace.  Having TQ’d last night’s opening 4WD qualifier after wrapping up his second 2WD win of the season, Lee Martin was third fastest ahead of the events winner for the last two season’s Martin Bayer.

‘Was good, I was driving safely’ was how Coelho summed up his performance.  Second fastest in Q1, he said after making ‘a lot of mistakes’ that lost him ‘a total of 8-seconds’ that result was lucky as others made mistakes too.  Aiming to start the day with a clean run he would have just one mistake after his car ‘jumped strange’ and flipped on the landing.  Dropping him off the TQ pace he said he had to ‘push a little harder to get back the TQ again’.  Posting the fastest lap of the round he is planning to leave his LRP powered XB4 the same for Q3, the 22-year-old added  ‘the car is pretty good so there is nothing to change’.

Team-mate Wollanka said he was nervous for the first part of the run but settled down and in the end it was a good run.  Fitting a slipper to his car, the Austrian said it helped with the braking but in other area it was not as good as a normal spur gear.  Also changing front caster blocks, he plans to try the slipper again in Q3 before switching back for the final qualifier to give him a back to back comparison.

Martin was not impressed by his own driving this morning saying things ‘didn’t really click’.  In an early mistake he would jump long on the track’s deceiving double that has caught out every driver, leading to a crash that cost 3-seconds.  Despite ‘not pushing’ after this he said he would still end up missing lines through the corners.  Also making a shock change to his Muchmore powered YZ4, he said its was ‘not as good as expected’ and they will change it again for Q3.  Team-mate Marc Rheinard would complete the Top 6 with his YZ4.  The Tamiya Touring Car ace said it was ‘just a steady run but I had one crash’ and when asked about Q1 he replied ‘it wasn’t my day yesterday’.  Qualifying 3rd for the 2WD A-Main he would finish 5th and in Q1 of 4WD he was only 12th fastest.

Chasing a third consecutive EOS 4WD win at the Hudy Arena this weekend, Bayer described his second qualifier as ‘not too bad’.  Only P11 in Q1 something he put down to the ‘driver (being) still in 2WD mode’, the World Championship finalist said he tried to be safe this morning but also reported an issue with power.  With a lack for feeling from the throttle which he changed over the run he said he needs to check it over for his next run.  Behind the 3 time EOS race winner was his younger brother Ales.  Having retired from Q1 with power issues, he said a change of speedo settings had rectified the problem and happy with his XB4 he will just fit new tyres for Q3.

Fourth in Q1, former champion Joern Neumann would take his Serpent SRX4 to P7 just ahead of young Team Associated talent Joona Haatanen.  The German said the run was ‘OK, (but had) a few bobbles’ but he was happy with the fact he improved his best lap time by 1/10.  Happy also to have reached his goal of making the A-Main, 4th and 7th expected to be enough, he said he needs to make the buggy a little easier to drive and he will lower the ride height for the next one.

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Martin TQs opening 4WD qualifier

Hot on the heels of winning 2WD at EOS Slovakia, Lee Martin has opened up the 4WD part of the event perfectly by topping the opening qualifier.  Normally starting on Sunday morning, due to the large entry at the Hudy Arena event the first of the four rounds of 4WD qualifying was moved to Saturday night with Martin fastest by 3.4-seconds from World Champion Bruno Coelho who would post the fastest lap.  Coelho’s Xray team-mate Martin Wollanka completed the Top 3 followed by multiple EOS Champion Joern Neumann who was the only other driver to do a 13-lap run.  Commenting on his TQ run, the Yokomo driver who topped yesterday’s practice said, ‘It took a while to get used to the car with it feeling twitchy after running 2WD all day’.  Expecting drivers to make mistakes as they got back into the rhythm of switching back to 4WD he said his aim for Q1 was to just run 5-minutes with ‘no stupid mistakes an get used to it again’.  Running much later than they had in practice he said his shock oil was a little too hard for the cooler night time conditions of the hall but added the car has good pace and everything is looking good for tomorrow.

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